Zushi's tale
by Vain Ambitions
Summary: About six years after Zushi met Gon and Killua, Zushi mastered the four basic principles of Nen and is ready to accomplish his goals; his reason of learning Nen in the first place.
1. Graduation

**DISCLAIMER: THIS STORY IS WRITTEN BEFORE ZUSHI'S HATSU/BACK STORY/FUTURE PLOTS ARE REVEALED IN THE MANGA (IF THEY EVER DO)**.** IF THEY END UP BEING SOMEWHAT ALIKE THEN I AM JUST BEING A GENIUS.**

**Now, please enjoy LOL**

"Thank you for everything, Master!" Zushi shouted as he bowed as low as he could.

"You're very welcome, Zushi." His teacher said kindly. Zushi remained in his position as he tried to stop his tears from flowing out.

It was finally the day of graduation. He had defeated 100 different opponents on the 200th floor by repeatedly dropping out and climbing up the Heaven's Arena time and time again. It had been a painfully tedious process, but he had developed his Hatsu fully because of this.

Even though he had waited for this day for so long, after seven long years of training with Wing, Zushi had gotten very attached to his teacher. Now, he just could not believe that he would be graduating and leaving. He remembered how when he had started training with Wing, he had thought that he would be stuck forever with this weird dude. Forever seemed so short now.

"How long are you going to stay in that position for?" Wing said, amused. He sighed when he realized that his student was crying. "There's no need to be so sad, we can still meet up someday."

Zushi body remained bowed. Wing could feel his tears threatening to flow out too, and quickly blinked. "Let's just give each other a goodbye hug, okay?" He offered.

"Osu!" Zushi shouted as he stood up straight and wiped his tears away. They gave each other a hearty hug.

"Even though you've mastered the four basic Nen principles, there is still a long way to go. Keep training the four basic Nen techniques every day, and focus on increasing your stamina and power." Wing gave one last advice.

"Osu!" Zushi said. "So, Master, what are you going to do now?"

Wing thought for a while. "I honestly don't know." He said. He had been dedicating most of his time training Zushi. "Maybe I'll go on a holiday."

Zushi's face lit up. "Do you want to go on a holiday to Kiyo?" He asked. Kiyo was the hometown of Zushi, which was a developing country located in the Azian continent.

"Are you treating me? 'Cause I'm kind of broke right now." Wing said.

"Master, you are always broke." He said in exasperation. "But I'll treat you." He added, beaming happily. He would love to introduce his family and friends to his much-respected teacher.

"Well then, since it's free, I won't reject the offer." Wing said. He had always wanted to know more about the background of this little boy (or maybe he should call Zushi a teenager now, since he's already 16 years old) and what made this boy willing to spend an entire month kneeling outside his house to beg him to teach him Nen. He imagined that only someone with a resolve for vengeance or a strong and burning ambition could be this desperate, but Zushi's kind and naïve nature did not look like he would want revenge or world domination or anything like that.

And so Zushi used up all his savings to buy the airship tickets to Kiyo, and they spent almost three days traveling.


	2. Kazumi

The country of Kiyo is split into different districts, with each district controlled by different clans. Therefore, different districts will be decorated and developed differently, showing off the variety of cultures, causing the country to be a popular tourist attraction.

Zushi belonged to the Sentoki clan, which was the third largest clan in Kiyo. The district was peppered with dojos, weaponry shops and blacksmiths. People were seen sparring everywhere, and many children were wearing similar training uniform as Zushi. Wing could hear Zushi's athlete style catchphrase 'Osu' everywhere on the streets.

Zushi's house was a relatively small cottage at the ends of the district. When Wing stepped into the house, he was greeted with a whole class of girls. If Zushi had not looked so confident that this was his home, Wing might have thought that they had mistakenly entered into a girls' school or something.

"Zushi!" The girls exclaimed. "Welcome back!" One by one they ran over to give Zushi a hug.

"Long time no see, sisters!" Zushi said in a rather military way that was typical of him. "Let me introduce my master, Wing-san!"

"Oooooh!" The girls exclaimed, looking at Wing. Wing hardly had so many females staring so intently at him before. It was quite a good feeling, to be honest. These girls were so good-looking Wing was suspecting if they were really related to Zushi. "So you are Zushi's master!" "You must be very powerful!" "Thank you for teaching Zushi!" "You are so handsome, Zushi's master!"

"Where's Father and Mother?" Zushi asked.

"They are at their bedroom." One girl replied.

"Thank you, Roku-ne-chan*." Zushi said.

"Go meet them! They are dying to see you." Another girl replied. "Meanwhile, we shall prepare a feast for the two of you!" The other girls agreed unanimously and they started scrambling in all directions, getting ready to cook a feast.

"Are these _all_ your sisters?" Wing asked, slightly flabbergasted.

"Osu!" Zushi replied. "I have 9 older sisters and 5 younger sisters. I'm the only boy."

"I see." Wing said, hiding his consternation. Zushi's parents must be really…active…

Zushi and Wing reached a room, and Zushi knocked. "Father, Mother, I am back from my training." He announced proudly.

The door slid open, and a tall and muscular man that had thick brown eyebrows just like Zushi appeared. "My son! You have grown so big!" He boomed. "Welcome back!"

Zushi's father then looked at Wing. "You must be my son's teacher! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" He said. Wing greeted back politely and they exchanged names. Apparently Zushi's father is called Kenpachi.

"Tell me, son, what did you learn?"

"Osu! I learnt Nen! It is a technique that manipulates one's aura to increase one's fighting abilities!"

Kenpachi's eyes lit up when he heard the 'increase one's fighting abilities', and slapped Zushi across the back. "My son! I am so proud of you!"

"Osu!"

Wing watched the father and son pair in exasperation. They were the weirdest pair he had ever seen in his entire life yet.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Kenpachi said. "Wing-san! Meet my wife, Senna!" He pushed the door out to reveal a bedridden woman. "Her health is not too good, so she stays in bed all the time."

After giving birth to fifteen children it's no wonder his wife had such a weak body. But the woman was extremely beautiful with beautiful long hair, just like Zushi's sisters; but extremely small, skinny and pale. Senna sat up to greet Wing before lying back down again.

Dinner was fantastic. Roast duck, steamed fish, sweet and sour pork, dumplings, spicy stir-fried vegetables, pancakes, chocolate fondue… Zushi's sisters were wonderful cooks, and there were so many delicious dishes that Wing thought he had gain about 8kg from trying to eat them all. Zushi's family was also fun and accommodating, talking about Zushi's embarrassing past and trying to get Wing to remember all of his sisters' names.

"There was a time that Zushi cried because he was upset that all his sisters got to wear dresses but he couldn't!" "Remember this time when Zushi's head is stuck in the ground for one entire day after he tried to pick a fight with the legendary fighter?" "Onii-chan is always being teased by his friends because he's too stupid!" "I'm not stupid!"

The more Wing interacted with Zushi's family, the more he liked the family. They were a happy and harmonious family that seemed very supportive of whatever Zushi wanted to do. They were not a significant family in the clan, and so they were not involved in any clan fights or held any grudges. Kenpachi was also a skilled martial artist. The family made a living by opening a small restaurant opposite their house. And this left Wing curious: why would Zushi so desperately want to abandon this family for seven years to train Nen with him?

After dinner, Zushi walked Wing to his hotel.

"Thanks for the dinner once again, Zushi." Wing smiled.

"You're welcome, master. How do you like Kiyo's food?" Zushi asked.

"It's good." Wing nodded. "Any food is good, really, as long as they are free."

Suddenly, Wing felt a surge of aura coming from behind them, and it was aiming for Zushi. He spun around and shouted. "Zushi, watch out!"

Zushi did not need Wing to inform him. Within seconds, Zushi blocked the attack with his Nen.

The attacker was a girl of Zushi's age. She was a little short, and had long black hair and a small, slightly chubby face. She used a lot of aura on her punch, but it was clear that she was not an enhancer, and Zushi came out of the attack relatively unscathed.

"You've blocked my attack very well." The girl commented.

"Kazumi!" Zushi said, surprised. "You're back, too!"

The girl, apparently called Kazumi, stood with the same stance that Zushi always had and almost everyone in the district had. "Osu! I have graduated from Aikido school of martial arts."

"Osu!" Zushi replied. "I have graduated from Shingen school of martial arts, and this is my master, Wing-san."

Kazumi bowed respectfully. Wing smiled as he noticed that Zushi sounded strangely happier when talking to this girl, and his eyes were always attentively affixed on her throughout their conversation.

"When did you come back?" Zushi asked.

"Just a few days ago." Kazumi answered. "Tana is coming back tomorrow from his Changquan school of martial arts."

"This is great news!"

Kazumi nodded happily. "With that, the three of us will form a power team and win the next Sentoki challenge!"

"Sentoki challenge?" Wing asked.

"It's a showdown between teams in our clans to select the strongest fighters, who will get to participate in the inter-clans fighting competition." Zushi explained. "Our clan had not won the championship for over two decades, even though we are the clan that focused most on martial arts and fighting."

"And it's all because of the Hageshi clan." Kazumi snapped angrily. "After I've found out that they had been winning because they had been using Nen, we've decided to learn Nen as well to beat them and bring back our lost pride as a clan! And _we're_ going to win, not the annoying condescending adults."

"Kazumi is the youngest daughter of the clan leader." Zushi explained quietly to Wing. "And she's mostly ignored at home." Wing nodded. That was probably the reason why Kazumi was so agitated about winning the competition. She must have had a lot of pride.

And seeing how Zushi was looking at her, Kazumi was probably the reason why Zushi was so desperate to learn Nen. He must have had wanted to be a part of Kazumi's team. Young love is great.

"Zushi, since your friend is coming back tomorrow, you should find him instead." Wing said. "I can tour around the rest of Kiyo by myself."

Zushi's face lit up for a second, but became sad immediately. He bowed. "Thank you for everything, Master!" He shouted.

Wing smiled. He had better leave before Zushi start crying in front of his girl. "Thank _you_ for the food. Goodbye, Zushi. We will meet again." He said as he turned and left for his hotel. So now he had to pay for his own expenses. He had better cut short his holiday trip.

Zushi watched as his master left. "Goodbye, Master!" Zushi called out to him. His training journey with Wing had really ended.

"Your teacher is really good." Kazumi said. "And _you're_ really good."

"You think so?" Zushi asked, elated. He had trained so hard with a sole purpose of becoming strong enough for Kazumi. And strong enough to protect her.

"Yes!" Kazumi said. "And you've grown so much too! Look how tall you are!"

"You've grown too! Seven years have passed, after all." _And you've grown to be even more beautiful than ever, how is that possible?_

"Come, let's go to my house! I've brought souvenirs from Madela!" She grabbed Zushi's hand.

It had been so long since they've held hands. Zushi smiled dumbly as he was led to Kazumi's mansion-like house.

XxXxX

**End of chapter! Sorry if it sounds too rushed I just can't wait to get on to the real story LOL**

_Note: *Roku means six in Japanese. So that girl is Zushi's sixth older sister._


	3. Tana

"Are you an idiot? A team needs at least four people." Tana said.

Kazumi gasped. "No." She said in a whisper.

"We can always find a fourth member." Zushi said, trying to comfort her. "It shouldn't be too hard, right?"

The three childhood friends were sitting on the floor in Kazumi's room (her room was the biggest among all of their rooms) to discuss about their future prospects. Tana arrived earlier that day, and Zushi and Kazumi had went to fetch him. Tana had also grown a lot, and he was even slightly taller and bigger than Zushi. Other than that, he still looked the same, with his short spiky black hair and blue eyes.

They each revealed their Nen type and ability. Coincidentally enough, their abilities nicely complemented each other. Zushi's Nen manipulates wind to aid in both short range and long range attack; being an emitter, Tana's Nen focuses on long range attacks that can attack groups and pinpoint individuals; Kazumi was a specialist, and her Nen is used mainly for defense.

In other words, Zushi was the short range combat fighter, Tana was the long range and Kazumi was the support. They would make a great team.

That is, if they could find another team member.

"I can't believe there was such a rule." Kazumi cried. "Why didn't you say earlier, Tana?"

"You were the one who organized this! I thought you knew." Tana grumbled. "And here I was, expecting a fourth member."

"Who else could I have asked?" Kazumi pouted angrily. "I'm only close to the two of you."

"How was I supposed to know?" Tana snapped back.

Zushi sighed. "Guys, stop fighting. Let's just think of way to find another member, okay?" Tana and Kazumi were both hardheaded; any discussions with the both of them would always end up in an argument.

Kazumi leaned back on the wall. "Yeah, anyway I think we might need another person like Zushi." She said. "We can't just have one short range combat fighter."

"True." Tana agreed, although unwillingly. "If our opponent were to attack us by surprise, Kazumi and I would have a harder time fighting."

"Oh, and we also need to find someone of our age." Kazumi insisted.

"Fine, fine, bosslady." Tana said, rolling his eyes. Kazumi glared at him.

"That's going to be hard, though." Zushi said. "Hardly anybody starts training at such a young age like us."

"I know how!" Kazumi said suddenly. "We could go for the Hunter Exam!"

"Huh? The people at the Hunter Exam are noobs." Tana replied curtly.

"Some of them might be really strong. But if the candidates of the exams were not satisfactory, we could use Hunter license card to search for a potential new team member in the Hunter Association." Kazumi explained. "Pro Hunters are really powerful!"

Zushi immediately thought of Gon and Killua. They were Hunters, right? At least he knew Gon was. And they were really powerful and talented. If most of the Hunters were like them, it should be easy to find a strong team member. "I think it would work." He said. "Since we've learnt Nen, passing the exam should be easy."

Kazumi pointed at Tana. "It's two against one! I don't care what you think, we're going to do it!" She grinned.

"Fine, fine, whatever you say, bosslady." Tana grumbled unhappily.

Kazumi took out her calendar. "Wow! Perfect timing, the hunter exam is starting next week! We can train at home for a few more days before we leave."

"Osu!" Zushi said. "We should practice our formation too."

"We can start practicing for our formation tomorrow. Individual practice first!" She said, chasing the two boys out of her room. "Now get out! Oh, but come back for dinner! My family is treating the both of you."

And so Zushi and Tana were kicked out of the Sentoki clan leader's mansion.

"Geez, she's so bossy." Tana complained. "Why am I friends with her?"

"But she's quite cute." Zushi said, blushing slightly as he thought of Kazumi's face.

"Only you'd find her cute, Zushi." Tana said, eyeing his friend in exasperation. "Why am I friends with you, too?"

"Don't say that, we're best friends." Zushi said, wrapping Tana with his arm. "Come on, let me fly you home." He added, winking.

"Oh yeah! Your Nen ability is manipulating the air! So you can make us fly…" Before Tana finished his sentence, he was pulled roughly into the air by Zushi.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Tana cried like a girl as they flew towards his house.

XxXxX

**End of chapter! Their specific abilities will be revealed later on yeah I'll be sure to think of some really cool Nen abilities haha**


	4. First Exam

**It took me so long to think about what the exam entails haha but anyway please enjoy :)**

**XxXxX**

It took a while finding the location of the Hunter Exam. But they found out that they were supposed to go to a certain hotel and knock with a certain rhythm to a certain door. It led them to a large underground basement. Zushi was number #339, Tana was number #340 and Kazumi was number #341.

They were considered early, as hundreds of people started streaming in, and in the end, the total number of candidates were around 1000.

"I didn't know that there would be this many people!" Kazumi said in surprise.

"It's so surprising that there are actually so many people who wants to be a Hunter." Tana commented.

"I heard that it comes with a lot of privileges." Zushi said. "Such as access to confidential information or to secret places and stuff like that."

"I heard that there's this training place that's reserved just for Hunters too." Kazumi added.

"Okay, I'm all excited to becoming a Hunter now." Tana said, grinning. "Plus, looking at all these people here, I'm really confident that I will be able to defeat them all in combat."

"Try not to use Nen, alright?" Zushi reminded. "Let's pass this exam fair and square."

Tana rolled his eyes. "Che, being all just and wise. Whatever."

"Are you guys first-timers?" The three of them turned around to find a fat middle-aged man. "I haven't seen you around before."

"Osu!" Zushi replied. "So you're not a first-timer?"

"I've participated in the exam for about 42 years already." The man said proudly (although Zushi did not find that to be a very proud achievement). "My name is Tonpa!"

"My name is Zushi!" "Tana." "My name is Kazumi."

"Eh, I thought everyone here is a first-timer. Repeating an exam sounded like such a drag." Tana said.

"Tsk tsk." Tonpa shook his head. "Don't you know that statistics have shown that only once in every three years does a rookie like you pass the exam? I'd say it's a lot rarer for a person to be a first-timer in the Hunter Exam."

"The Hunter Exams are that hard?" Zushi asked.

"It's a real physical and mental test. But it can be really fun." Tonpa said. "Actually, I've already given up trying to complete the exam; I've passed my prime, after all. I'm just doing it for the excitement."

"I see."

"Anyway, are you guys thirsty?" Tonpa asked, taking out four cans of juice. "Let's drink to toast our friendship."

"Nah, it's okay." Tana said.

"Sorry, but I don't want to have to pee in the middle of the exam." Kazumi said.

"Thanks anyway, Tonpa-san." Zushi said.

Tonpa frowned. "You guys sure? You'd probably be stuck here for quite some time though."

"We'd look for you if we're thirsty." Tana said, dismissing him. Tonpa walked away unhappily.

Zushi looked around. Now that Tonpa had told them, the people here indeed looked like they were experienced in this exam. "Now I'm a little uncertain of whether we can pass this." He said, slightly worried.

"It's fine." Kazumi said. "And we don't even need all of us to pass. Just one of us will do."

Suddenly, pieces of paper started shooting out from nowhere and aiming at the candidates at a very high speed. "Whoa!" Zushi managed to grab the one that was aiming for him. There were a few candidates who were knocked out by the paper and collapsed on the ground.

Tana and Kazumi did not manage to grab their pieces the first time, and hence had to suffer a few tackles. "Argh, these papers are controlled by Nen!" Tana exclaimed.

They looked around and realized that the majority of the candidates were still struggling and reaching for their pieces of paper in vain. Slowly, more and more candidates collapsed and fainted.

Zushi carefully unrolled his piece of paper and read.

_Sandy has herpes._

"Huh?" He frowned. "What does this even mean?"

"I don't get mine either." Kazumi said. They were about to show each other what was on their paper before a voice sounded above their head stopped them.

"Welcome to the 303th hunter exam! I am your first examiner, Haruhi. The piece of paper that you all are holding on, or are trying to get a hold on, has a little secret written on it. Hunters are information gatherers, and also secret keepers, hence, the aim of the exam is to keep your secret safe while you try to find out two more person's secret using whatever method you want (although no killing is allowed). Once you are done, you can tell the gatekeepers your three secrets, and then they will lead you through the door. The time limit is one hour, after one hour we will collate the results and announce the candidates who can move onto the next exam. Remember, keep your own secret safe."

The gatekeepers were standing at the end of the basement, guarding the door.

By then, most people who were still up and about had already grabbed a hold of their paper and reading them.

"Thank goodness we didn't read each other's paper!" Kazumi said in relief. "Or we would have both failed this exam!"

Tana started to shred his paper into pieces. "Better get rid of my secret in paper." Zushi and Kazumi followed suit.

Many people were also tearing up their paper. Soon, the entire room was filled with tiny shreds and it was impossible to piece back them back.

"We just need to find out two more secrets, and then we can share it among ourselves." Zushi said.

"Provided if you kids can keep your own secrets." The trio spun their heads to face two tall and beefy men smirking menacingly. Various skirmishes had already started around them as people tried to torture one another for information.

"Perfect." Kazumi smiled. "Each of you takes down one of them." She ordered.

"Hey! What about you?" Tana snapped, starting another argument.

"Don't get cocky!" The two men shouted angrily and lunged at the three of them. Zushi punched the both of them and sent them flying across the room.

"Oops, I reacted by reflex." Zushi said. "I think I knocked out both of them."

"You idiot." Tana grumbled. "We can't force information out of unconscious people!"

"Sorry." Zushi stuck out his tongue. "You know, we can eavesdrop." Zushi suggested. "Since so many people are fighting it out, let's just eavesdrop on any secrets spilled."

"Sounds good!" Kazumi said. "Let's split up and meet back here after we've each found a secret!"

"Osu!" The three of them ran off in different directions.

Zushi spotted a skinny, nerdy-looking man being tortured by two other burly men. His face was already bloody and gruesome and he was begging for his life. So Zushi crept near them.

"Please stop! I'll tell you! I'll tell you what's on my piece of paper!" The man pleaded. "_Peter can't read! Peter can't read!_"

"What sort of stupid secret is that?" One of the men growled. "You must be lying!"

"I'm not! I swear I'm not lying!" The man trembled and fell to his knees.

"Okay, heard that? Let's go find one more!" The other man said, releasing his grip on the poor man.

"Yeah, this is easy!"

When the two men left, Zushi approached the bleeding man. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I can…I can still move." He said, struggling to get up. Zushi grabbed his hand and lifted him up.

"I can help you to where the gatekeepers are. Maybe they'll let you out of the exam early, so you can get treated."

"T…thanks, boy." The man smiled. Many of his teeth were missing. "But it's okay…" He leaned forward. "I still have a chance of passing this exam."

"Oh." Zushi said, feeling slightly sad. So the secret that he had just overheard was false. "That's great. My name is Zushi, what's your name?"

"Peter."

So people will be giving false information everywhere, huh. How were they going to tell if the information was trustable?

"So you are trying to overhear secrets, huh?" Peter asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I am." Zushi said, slightly embarrassed.

"That's a pretty good idea, only you're not going to know if what you hear is correct. Most people are not going to say out their real secret." Peter said exactly what was worrying Zushi. "But what's written on a paper would be the real thing. Some people did not tear their pieces of paper, for some reason. Maybe they have a bad memory. You can try finding such people and reading their paper."

"That sounds quite hard, though. There are so many people here." Zushi said.

"Or you could exchange secrets. Let's say you found yourself reliable information. You could use the information to ask for people's extra secret."

"Trading, huh? But I'm not going to know if it's reliable too."

"Then you're going to have to gather as much secrets as possible. This exam tests on your ability to sift through information to determine which one is reliable. People who are overconfident will not pass, like the two guys that beat me up."

Zushi mused over what Peter had said. "Thanks for the tip, Peter!"

Either way, Zushi thought sticking to his original intention would be the best. There seemed to be a lot lesser people in the basement already. Most people seemed to have already gathered enough 'secrets' to tell the gatekeepers. Zushi wondered what was on the other door. What if the exam did not end there?

_Amabelle's mother died. Nana is bankrupt. Hoko just won first prize in a singing competition. Rem just passed the Hunter Exam._

The secrets Zushi overheard were all so random, it was impossible to tell if any of them were real or fake. Zushi met Kazumi and Tana at the meeting point.

"I heard _Gato is the murderer_." Tana said. "Although I have to confess I cheated by using Zetsu and hid by the ceiling to overhear the exchange, which was annoyingly in a very soft whisper."

"In a whisper, huh? That might be reliable." Zushi said. "Just in case I overheard four secrets, and they were all the result of torture."

"How cruel." Kazumi cringed slightly. "I tried going to the gatekeeper to overhear what people said to the gatekeeper, but it was impossible. Then I tried telling another candidate a fake secret, and the gatekeeper actually let him pass. So basically, you won't ever know the secret you overheard was real or not until they announce who passed the exam."

"You _told_ another candidate a fake secret?" Tana repeated in shock.

"Yeah, I pretended that I was in love with him or something." Kazumi shrugged. "Perks of being a girl."

Tana nudged Zushi. "Aren't you jealous?" He whispered cheekily. Zushi nudged him back angrily.

"I also asked the gatekeeper if more than three secrets could be told. He just said he needs three secrets, so I guess, no."

"What if we don't tell him our own secret?" Zushi asked. "Since, you know, the examiner said that we must keep our secrets safe. Who knows what's behind the door? Maybe the exam continues."

"You always think of such complicated stuff." Tana said. "I don't get it, we already have so many secrets, why are we still thinking so much?"

"Alright, then, let's just pick two reliable secrets." Kazumi sighed. "Zushi, tell us one of the secrets that you think is the most reliable one."

Zushi thought back. He remembered how the man pretended to have went to the gatekeepers and confirmed that the information received was wrong, and then kept on beating the boy until he said _Nana is bankrupt_.

"_Nana is bankrupt._" Zushi said softly.

"Okay then, let's go tell the gatekeepers." Kazumi said. "Fingers crossed!"

**XxXxX**

**Erps I feel so stressed writing about the Hunter Exam. Nothing can beat the real thing! Hope you enjoyed anyway. :)**


	5. Arthur

The door led to another room that was just like the previous one. Except that now there were no skirmishes. Zushi spotted the two men that were torturing Peter.

"Kazumi!" A tall and rather handsome man appeared. "Why…why are you here? I thought you said you were going to fail the exam? Don't…don't tell me that secret you gave me was fake?"

"Ah, Arthur!" Kazumi exclaimed, grabbing his hands. "I'm so glad to see you! I don't know why I was allowed into this room! I just wanted to see you so bad that I just went to try my luck!"

"Oh, is that so! That's great to hear." Arthur said, relieved.

Zushi could feel his blood boiling, and slapped Arthur's hands away. "Get away from her." He snapped.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Who is this?" He asked Kazumi.

"Oh, he's my friend, Zushi." Kazumi introduced. "And this is Tana."

"I see." Arthur smirked as Zushi glared at him. "Just a friend, right?"

"It seems anybody can be allowed into this room." Kazumi explained.

"Really?" Arthur said, taken aback. "Then what is this room for?"

"To see if anybody starts revealing their secret once they think that they are safe." A muscular man with a beard next to Arthur said. "I'm Bruce."

"But it shouldn't matter right?" Kazumi asked. "No one is going to go back and tell the gatekeeper."

"But there are monitors everywhere." Bruce explained, nodding towards the ceiling. Sure enough, there were surveillance cameras, albeit small, attached to every corner on the ceiling. "I'm sure the purpose of this exam is not just about preventing other people in reporting your secret."

"This exam is stupid." Tana said.

"It's not very well planned, since there are way too many people and the rules were very vague and unclear." Bruce said. "But it definitely makes sense. Hunters are valued often for what they know, and if you're the type that blurts everything immediately, or when torture, or once you feel comfortable, you don't deserve to be a hunter."

"I still find it stupid." Tana said. "And boring."

"However I am not sure if they would really consider the two other secrets we've gathered." Bruce continued his speculation. "Getting reliable information is hard, and too hard for it to be the first exam. Furthermore, there is no way of confirmation, and it would be unfair to fail us just because we were given misinformation. I'm guessing that this exam is only a test of how well you can keep your secret, and we would pass if we did not reveal our secret throughout this exam."

"If that is the case, then we are safe!" Kazumi cheered.

"You are safe?" Arthur asked, getting suspicious.

"Well, my two friends are safe." Kazumi said, laughing nervously. "I like to include myself among them."

"One hour has passed!" The voice boomed across the room. "We have collated the results of the first exam. There are 216 examinees that passed, that is, there are 216 examinees who managed to keep their secret safe. Among them, 52 examinees were able to obtain accurate secrets, and they will be given a head start during the next exam."

"Bruce, you're right!" Kazumi exclaimed.

The examiner started reading out the numbers of the people who passed. Zushi, Kazumi and Tana passed, and had even gotten themselves a head start. Arthur, Bruce and even Peter passed as well. And Peter, too, managed to get himself a headstart. Apparently, Tonpa passed too.

"So you lied to me?" Arthur asked.

"Well, you still passed." Kazumi said coyly.

"No way!" Arthur said. "And here I thought I was so lucky, and I was just about to ask you out."

Kazumi stuck out her tongue. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Arthur sighed. "I knew I've no such luck."

Zushi heaved a sigh of relieve silently. He glanced at Tana, who gave an inappropriately wide grin back at him.


	6. Second Exam

The second exam was at a mountain. The journey took a few hours in the airship, and so Zushi had to bear with the grueling interactions with Arthur.

"I hope he fails the exam." He said to Tana when they were alone.

"Oooh, it's the first time I hear the all-righteous boy say something like that." Tana laughed, amused. "Come on, you're _still_ jealous? Kazumi is obviously not interested in him. Relax."

"But he's obviously interested in her!" Zushi said unhappily.

Tana wrapped his arms around Zushi's neck. "Poor Zushi, are you worried? Don't you worry child, you still have me."

"Oh, you'll be my wingman?"

Tana pushed him away roughly. "Hell no! I hate that woman and I am appalled that you would like her and would even have competition."

"What woman?" Kazumi appeared from behind, hands crossed.

"Go away, _woman_, we are having a men's talk. You don't belong here." Tana said, rolling his eyes.

"Pfft! Since when were the two of you men?" Kazumi said.

"What did you say, you flat-chested woman?" Tana snapped.

"Hey Tana, that was rude!" Zushi lectured. (_And Kazumi is not flat-chested! _Thought Zushi unhappily.)

"_I_ was rude?" Tana said in exasperation. "Ah, fine, I can't win when you're playing favourites. So, what do you want, bosslady?"

"What do you think of Arthur? Do you think he's suitable for our team?"

"No way. He doesn't even know Nen!" Tana exclaimed.

"But he's strong." Kazumi said. "If we can't find anyone with Nen, he could be a nice backup. Didn't you see what he could do?" They had been discussing about what the subsequent exams would entail, and Bruce speculated that a proper dueling would definitely be required. Hence they had been dueling for the past two hours. And Arthur had shown that he was quite the fighter.

"I still think we need somebody who knows Nen." Zushi said. "Or else we will be very disadvantaged."

"Yeah, and it'll be like fighting alongside a baby." Tana said, being as brusquely honest as ever.

"True." Kazumi sighed. "Well, I've been looking around. Seems that the examinees are all a disappointment. Guess we have no choice but to wait until the exam is over."

"There's no need to rush, Kazumi." Zushi comforted. "It's our important team member, we need to choose carefully."

"You're right." Kazumi put her hands over her head. "Ah, this exam would be very boring and pointless then."

"Hey guys!" Bruce called from behind. "We've reached!"

They ran out and looked out of the window. The view below was filled with mountains and mountains and only mountains. Some of them were even snowcapped. "I've never seen so many mountains in my life!" Kazumi exclaimed.

They landed on one of the tallest mountain. Once they got off, a tall bespectacled woman dressed in a white coat stood in front of them.

"Hello! I am your second examiner, Kloe! Ah ah, there are way too many people; this is a second exam! Haruhi must have been very lenient. Oh well, I will make this especially hard, then." Kloe said, hands on her hips.

"I am a Medicinal Hunter, and I specialize in finding special herbs and grasses that can treat diseases and illnesses. My helpers are now passing around a book of plants that are present in mountains, each with stars next to them. The number of stars represents the difficulty of obtaining them. A plant with one star will receive one point; two stars will receive five points; three stars will receive twenty-five points; four stars will receive a hundred and twenty five points; and so on. You all have five days to gather a total of two thousand points."

Zushi received the book and he started flipping through the pages. The book was quite thick, and there were a total of 2938 plants. The plants were all oddly shaped and honestly Zushi could not tell them apart very well.

"Ah, to make this test even harder, I am going to take away the book you're holding, and you can only keep one page."

"One page?!" A lot of examinees started complaining and muttering among themselves. One page only had about six plants recorded, as long descriptions of each plant along with the explanations of its medicinal purposes were included as well.

"You have one hour to decide which page you want, and the people who did better in the first exam, that is, the people who were told that they would get a head start, will have five hours instead. After which, all of you will start together."

"Let's team up!" Arthur suggested. "We each take one page of one-star plants, since they will be easy to find."

"I think it'll be better if we select the higher-star plants and plants that do not look like plants. Common plants will most probably be any plant that we can find easily." Zushi said.

"You make sense." Bruce agreed. "After all, the book does provide certain description as to where to find the plants. Keeping pages with rare plants would be helpful."

"Yes, and we need to choose pages that not a lot of examinees would choose, or else we will have competition." Zushi continued.

"Okay! Let's decide on five pages!" Kazumi exclaimed.

"Actually, I think we should decide on a page on our own." Zushi mused as he observed the surroundings. "The plants here seemed to be very scarce, even the one-star ones probably. Doing this with a group would probably not be efficient enough to gather two thousand points worth of plants for each of us."

"Oh, so we're not teaming up?" Kazumi asked, a little crestfallen.

"I think we'd better not." Zushi smiled at her.

Arthur sighed. "Oh well. We should start memorizing as much plants as we can now. Unlike you three, we only have an hour."

They sat down, like the rest of the examinees, and started reading. Zushi's memory was not too bad, but he definitely was not confident of remembering all the plants in the book. He briefly scanned through the pages of the one-star and two-star plants, remembering their appearance and their general locations. Most plants seemed to have a vague location ("located at mountains). He read the pages of the three-star and above plants in greater detail, and finally, he chose a page that had a mix of four-star and five-star plants that were found at steep places, since he was confident of his ability to climb.

"Time's up for everyone! Remember to meet back here, at this very same spot, five days later!" Kloe announced happily.

"Goodbye for now!" Tana said.

"Yeah, bye." Kazumi replied.

And the three of them sped off in different directions.


End file.
